LOS ANGELES (AP) — A girl who labored as a hairstylist for Fox Sports activities alleges in a lawsuit that former host Skip Bayless made repeated, undesirable advances towards her — together with a proposal of $1.5 million to have intercourse with him.
Attorneys for Noushin Faraji, who was a hair stylist at Fox for greater than a decade, are in search of unspecified damages from Bayless, Fox Sports activities and its mother or father firm, Fox Company, in keeping with a duplicate of the lawsuit filed Friday in California Superior Court docket in Los Angeles.
The criticism claims Fox executives fostered a hostile work setting that allowed senior managers and on-air personalities together with Bayless to abuse staff with out concern of punishment.
The Related Press doesn’t typically determine, in textual content or photographs, those that say they’ve been sexually assaulted or subjected to abuse until they’ve publicly recognized themselves as Faraji has in submitting the lawsuit.
An lawyer for Bayless, Jared Levine, didn’t instantly reply to AP’s phone and textual content messages in search of remark. E-mail and cellphone messages left at Bayless’s expertise firm weren’t instantly returned.
Bayless couldn’t be reached instantly for remark.
Fox Sports activities mentioned in a press release that it takes the allegations critically however had no additional remark given the pending lawsuit.
Faraji claimed that the advances by Bayless, which started in 2017 and continued till final yr — included lingering hugs, kisses on the cheek and feedback from Bayless that he might change Faraji’s life if she had intercourse with him.
In 2021, she claims within the swimsuit, Bayless provided Faraji $1.5 million for intercourse and, after she refused, later threatened her job.
“Ms. Faraji knew that he was making an attempt to strain her into having intercourse with him, however she saved repeating that she was knowledgeable that needed to be type to all expertise,” the lawsuit says.
Bayless labored for Fox Sports activities till 2024 when his show was canceled after its scores plummeted with the departure of his co-host, Shannon Sharpe.
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Faraji mentioned she was fired in 2024 based mostly on “fabricated” causes. The lawsuit mentioned she initially remained quiet about her remedy at Fox, believing she may very well be in peril if she went public.
The swimsuit additionally claims Fox staff weren’t paid their full wages or additional time. It seeks class-action standing on behalf of different staff who allegedly had been impacted.
In 2017 Fox Sports activities fired its head of programming amid a probe of sexual harassment allegations.
